One of the highlights of the first year of my ACPM presidency has been the opportunity to address audiences of medical students around the country on the topic of Careers in Preventive Medicine. I undertook this tour after hearing from too many practicing physicians, and even PM residency applicants, “We never heard of the specialty of Preventive Medicine when we were in medical school.”

At seven med schools so far, from California to New Jersey (UCSD, Loma Linda, Medical College of Georgia, Vanderbilt, UT Southwestern, U of South Florida, Rutgers/RWJ), turnout has consistently been about 30 first- and second-year students who have listened raptly and peppered me with questions (and enjoyed the free food provided by ACPM). The questions have focused on the future of the specialty, federal support of prevention and public health, insurance coverage, and career options. Some students have been interested in international opportunities; others in the feasibility of Preventive Medicine specialty practice; still others in how better to practice prevention in the context of another specialty.

This medical school tour is an initiative that won’t pay off for a few years, and I’ll only be able to visit a relative handful of the 146 US medical schools, but I’m hopeful that the message will spread beyond the walls of the schools that I’m able to visit. “Building the pipeline” will need to continue to be an ACPM focus if our specialty is to thrive.

Daniel Blumenthal, MD, MPH, FACPM
President
American College of Preventive Medicine

Members in the News

Congratulations to ACPM Member Dominic Cirillo, MD, PhD, for his appointment as an adjunct professor at Daemen College!Dr. Cirillo will be teaching infectious disease epidemiology in the Division of Public Health in the Masters of Public Health Program.

Fellow Prathibha Varkey, MD, MBA, FACPM current president and chief executive officer of Seton Clinical Enterprise (SCE), will depart Seton Feb. 22 to become chief executive officer of Yale New Haven Health System’s Northeast Medical Group, with an academic appointment in the medical school. The practice includes 750 physicians and serves Connecticut as well as parts of New York City and Rhode Island.

Dr. Varkey arrived at Seton and Ascension from Mayo Clinic in late 2013, to lead the clinical enterprise. Since then, Dr. Varkey and her team have led the Seton Clinical Enterprise to solid financial footing, improved patient satisfaction scores in the outpatient clinics, improved physician engagement scores and played a significant role in developing Ascension Texas’ outpatient strategy, including the successful system EMR implementation of athenahealth.

Congratulations Dr. Varkey!

Corporate Roundtable Spotlight

OTC MEDICINE SAFETY: TEACHING TWEENS TO BE MEDICINE WISE

Research shows that children begin to self-medicate around 11 years old.Unfortunately, when not equipped with the knowledge and information to make safe choices, adolescents may end up doing more harm than good. In 2014 alone, 140,000 cases of medicine exposures reported to poison centers involved children ages 6 to 19.

With this need in mind,Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc., one of ACPM’s newest Corporate Roundtable members, has supported the development of a free, evidenced-based educational program for 5th and 6th graders, focused on medicine safety.The objective is to build a more responsible future medicating population and to build a healthy respect for all medicines, including OTCs, by teaching adolescents at an early age.

The program, “OTC Medicine Safety”, was developed and refined with the help of an expert panel of 12 patient advocacy and professional organizations, qualitative testing with teachers and students, and quantitative testing with over 1,200 students. In its 5th year, the program includes comprehensive resources for teachers, school nurses, community leaders, and parents – all of which play a critical role in helping tweens learn about responsible OTC medicine use and storage. Program partners for “OTC Medicine Safety” include Scholastic, AAPCC, CADCA, Safe Kids, NCPIE, APhA, and more. The program encourages and supports parents’ roles in educating their children on medicine safety, and provides them with helpful tools and resources for this purpose. There are extensive resources available for parents in 6 languages.All resources are completely free and available online at www.scholastic.com/otcmedsafety.

Preventive Medicine 2016 is just wrapping up at the Crystal City Hyatt in Arlington, Virginia! Starting with the Opening General Session and KBS Guest Lecturer, Adewale Troutman, MD, MPH, CPH, who spoke on Social Justice: Let's Start a Movement and Lobbying on the Hill, ACPM members have been busy learning and representing the profession! Other highlights include a session on Preventing Zika, a Speed Mentoring session and our Opening Reception and Poster Presentation. For those unable to make it this year, we hope you will check out the recordings. We also look forward to seeing you all in Portland, Oregon for Preventive Medicine 2017, May 23-26, 2017.

See what happened by searching for #PrevMed2016

ACPM Participates in Launch of CDC's New 6|18 Initiative

On February 8-9th Dani Pere, Associate Executive Director of ACPM participated in the launch of CDC's new 6|18 initiative ACPM at CDC headquarters in Atlanta. The new initiative targets six common and costly health conditions – tobacco use, high blood pressure, healthcare-associated infections, asthma, unintended pregnancies, and diabetes – and 18 proven specific interventions that formed the starting point of discussions with purchasers, payers, and providers (www.cdc.gov/sixeighteen).

This initiative is a major priority for CDC and for Dr. Frieden , as he addressed leaders and decision makers from state public health and Medicaid agencies during the 2-day meeting which culminated in state-specific plans to move from 6|18 evidence to action. ACPM is seen as a key partner in the success of the initiative.

ACPM Supports 'Cancer Prevention: Together We Can'

The American College of Preventive Medicine (ACPM) is a proud supporter of theCancer Prevention: Together We Cancampaign to help people make informed lifestyle choices to reduce their risk of developing cancer.

Starting February 1, the campaign highlights the importance a healthy diet and consistent physical activity play in avoiding some types of cancer. The campaign’s website also provides interactive tools that empower individuals to examine daily habits and take action to reduce their cancer risk.

According to research from the American Cancer Society and campaign organizers at the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR), approximately one-third of cases of the most common cancers in the United States could be prevented if individuals improved their eating habits, increased physical activity, and maintained an overall healthy weight. Data also shows that new cases of severalpreventable cancerscould be cut in half or more by making key lifestyle changes, including cases of colorectal, endometrial, esophageal, mouth, and stomach cancers.1

As a leader in preventive medicine and an advocate for the use of lifestyle modifications to reduce risk for chronic illnesses, ACPM has joined AICR and otherpartnersin promoting the campaign which coincides with National Cancer Prevention Month observed throughout February.

Learn more about the campaign by reading AICR'spress releaseand visiting the campaign website atwww.aicr.org/can-prevent/. You call also follow developments on social media with the #cancerprevention hashtag, and learn more about activities related to ACPM'sLifestyle Medicine Initiativewhich promote the use of lifestyle interventions—such as nutrition, physical activity, stress reduction, rest, smoking cessation, and avoidance of alcohol abuse—to decrease disease risk and illness burden.